1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage casing suitable for storing a plurality of thin articles being stored, in particular, optical information recording media such as optical disks, etc., and a method of assembling the storage casing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Being one of recording media that record an information signal, optical disks are not sold one by one, but are in many cases sold in a package, in which a plurality of optical disks are packed. Concretely, optical disks are sold in a state, in which optical disks are stored one by one in storage casings made of a transparent or translucent synthetic resin and having stiffness due to having a thickness of 4 mm to 10 mm, and a plurality of storage casings with optical disks stored therein are packed and wrapped up in a lump by heat shrinkable film or the like. In other sales configurations, a plurality of optical disks stacked with a spindle casing inserted through central holes of the optical disks are packed and wrapped up by heat shrinkable film or the like. Further, in other sales configurations, optical disks are stored one by one in sleeve casings being flexible and made of a transparent or translucent synthetic resin mixed with paper and nonwoven fabric, and a plurality of sleeve casings with optical disks stored therein are received in a single packing casing.
Optical disks owned every user are increased in number, so that it becomes troublesome to find out a desired optical disk. Storage casings having the stiffness and a thickness in the order of 10 mm include a backbone enabling writing thereon information related to recorded information signals, but the work of taking out a backbone from a storage casing is troublesome and such storage casings are not made use of in many cases. Storage casings having a thickness of less than 10 mm and made of a synthetic resin are thin, and cannot receive a backbone. Additionally, optical disks stored in a spindle casing and optical disks stored in a sleeve casing are not provided with paper for writing of memos.
On the other hand, when a user writes information, such as title, etc, related to recorded contents, directly on an optical disk, the user visually recognizes a title, which represents contents directly written on the optical disk, through a transparent or translucent storage casing and sleeve casing.
Storage casings with a recorded optical disk stored therein are in many cases stacked in a vertical or horizontal position to be stored in a packing casing. Also, optical disks stored in a sleeve casing continue in many cases to be stored in a packing casing been used since selling. When a packing casing is stored, optical disks put in a state of being stored in a storage casing or a sleeve casing are stacked in a vertical or horizontal position, so that when memos, such as title, etc, related to contents recorded in an optical disk are directly written on the optical disk, a region, in which memos are written, hides behind an adjacent storage casing or an adjacent sleeve casing to make retrieval hard. Also, in case of purchasing optical disks stored in a spindle casing, it is necessary to prepare a separate storage casing for the optical disks, which is troublesome.
Also, storage casings need an adhesive in assembly and include a plurality of parts to cause a problem that manufacturing processes are increased in number.
In addition, JP-A-2001-97472 discloses a storage casing for a recording medium. The JP-A-2001-97472 describes assembling a single sheet to assemble a storage casing storing therein a plurality of disk cartridges and taking in and out of disk cartridges through opening and closing a front plate, which is restricted in amount of turning by a pin being a separate member. With the disclosure of the JP-A-2001-97472, however, only the front plate turns and turning is performed only by the front plate, so that opening can be performed only in one direction at the time of retrieval to make opening insufficient in freedom, which makes it hard to turn over disk cartridges and difficult it to find out a desired disk cartridge from a plurality of disk cartridges stored in the storage casing.
In particular, in case of accommodating and storing an optical disk in a storage casing and a sleeve casing, which are thinner than a disk cartridge, the casings are increased in number, so that a range of turning is insufficient with only turning of the front plate as in the JP-A-2001-97472, thus making it difficult to confirm an indication applied on an optical disk itself and a desired optical disk. Further, the storage casing disclosed in the JP-A-2001-97472 is easily influenced by weight balance of disk cartridge therein. Further, the storage casing disclosed in the JP-A-2001-97472 substantially uses a pin for turning of the front plate, so that parts are plural in number and it is not possible to adequately achieve shortening of manufacturing processes.
For the reason described above, a selling and packaging configuration is demanded of a storage casing for optical disks to comprehensively take account of reduction in storage space, reduction of auxiliary supplies for arrangement and storage, reduction of labor for retrieval of a disk, reduction of waste packaging materials, and further reduction in cost.